The island covers 1,400 acres (5.7 km2; 2.2 sq mi) and it has several coral reefs. The land fauna includes tortoises, herons and many other species. Its year-round population of about 500 mostly live in the villages of Lovell, Britannia Bay, and Dover.

The island of Mustique is owned by the Mustique Company, which in turn is owned by the island's home owners. The island has approximately 100 private villas, many of which are rented out through the Mustique Company. In addition there is one hotel called the Cotton House, owned by the Mustique Company, and one privately owned seven-bedroom hotel called Firefly.

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The history of the island of Mustique, and of the Grenadines in general, dates back to the 15th century, when Spanish sailors first sighted this more or less linear group of small rocky islands and named them "Los Pájaros" or "the birds", because they resembled a small flock of birds scattered across the sea in flight. During the 17th century the islands were renamed the Grenadines by pirates, who used the sheltered bays to hide their ships and treasure. The islands were later used by European planters to grow sugar cane. This lucrative industry lasted until the 19th century, when the extraction of sugar from European-grown sugar beet dramatically lessened the worldwide demand for tropical sugar.

Mustique's sugar plantations were abandoned and eventually swallowed up by scrub, leaving remnants such as the sugar mill at "Endeavor" and its "Cotton House". The Plantation House was built in the 18th century.

There are a core set of names whose influence created Mustique as what it is today. In probable order, they are Colin Tennant, Oliver Messel, Princess Margaret, Tommy Hilfiger, Quincy Providence, Shania Twain and Mick Jagger. Immediately prior to that, the island was home only to fishermen and goats.[2]

David Bowie once owned an Indonesian-inspired multi-pavilion villa on the island, which he left, asserting that "the house was so tranquil and peaceful that he found it hard to get any work done."[7][8] Bowie then sold the estate for $5 million to business tycoon and poet Felix Dennis in 1994.[9] After the death of Felix Dennis [10] in June 2014 the Mandalay Estate was put up for sale and sold for a reported price of £14 million [11] to entrepreneur Simon Dolan.